A part of solving India’s water crisis lies on its farms. From soil, to grain, cultivation, to harvesting, none knows the agrarian land in India and its potential more than our farmers. By empowering farmers with technology that will help them with greater yield, while enabling water conservation for the nation, the agriculture sector in India could be transformed.

The solution? Micro-irrigation. How has irrigation and the water problem evolved together in India? What is the promise of micro-irrigation? What are the barriers preventing this solution from scaling? Join Rathish Balakrishnan in the latest episode of Decoding Impact in discussion with Kaushal Jaiswal, MD at Rivulis Irrigation, for this practical discussion on micro-irrigation, the potential of India’s farmers, and a way forward to conserve water in India.

Explore some of our SKI products related to this topic:

• Transforming Crop Cultivation: Advancing Water Efficiency in Indian Agriculture

• Worsening Water Stress in Agriculture: Is There a Glimmer of Hope?

Guest: Kaushal Jaiswal

Host: Rathish Balakrishnan

Producer: Meenakshi Iyer

Produced by: Pickle Jar Media

Time Stamps & Chapters:

00:00 - Precap
01:35 - Welcome
01:55 - Topic intro
03:02 - Guest intro
07:08 - How has discussing irrigation and the water problem evolved in India
10:00 - Micro-irrigation as a practice in the North vs. the South of India
13:01 - The invisible cost of water in agriculture
14:45 - Understanding the value of drip irrigation
19:44 - Are benefits of micro-irrigation visible to the farmer?
23:08 - Why is the adoption of micro-irrigation so low in India today?
30:59 - The role of AI in democratising micro-irrgation systems and set-up.
33:07 - The maintenance of micro-irrigation systems
35:27 - The solution to scaling micro-irrigation
38:53 - Reducing the friction for financing & the role of subsidies
41:58 - Scaling micro-irrigation for 1 million farmers
43:18 - The most investable solutions to scale micro-irrigation in agriculture
45:09 - Crops to prioritise for micro-irrigation
48:22 - Regions to prioritise for micro-irrigation
49:19 - The market for micro-irrigation in East India
52:23 - Financing micro-irrigation through climate financing
56:05 - Summary and Thanks
58:57 - Outro